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Die Fledermaus - “Spiel’ ich die Unschuld vom Lande”
Johann Strauss II (1825-1899)
Die Fledermaus - “Spiel’ ich die Unschuld vom Lande”
The most successful of Johann II’s operettas, and the only one set in contemporary Vienna, was and still is Die Fledermaus, which was first performed at the Theater an der Wien in 1874. One of its principal characters is Adele, a parlour maid who has serruptitiously taken the evening off to attend a lavish ball thrown by the Russian Prince Orlovsky and to further her ambitions as an actress. How she comes to be showing off her acting abilities in a prison in the early hours of the morning would take too long to explain but, clearly, as she goes through the repertoire of parts she can play, she is not in the least put off by the incongruous circumstances.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Fledermaus - Spiel ich die…”